1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of door and panel jamb systems. More particularly, the invention concerns a novel clip-together jamb system that may be altered to fit a wide variety of door-panel combinations heretofore existing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A jamb is defined in the dictionary as a side post or a piece of a framed opening as for a door, window or fireplace. Historically, jambs are built on the job site, i.e., they are made of wood or poured concrete and are designed and later built in place so that they become an integral part of the structure with which they are assembled. This is all well and good for the workman, whose abilities are instrumental with designing and installing pieces of wood and frames in which concrete is poured, however, the method possesses two distinct disadvantages: it is time-consuming and thus very expensive, and concrete is heavy while wood distorts under load. Concrete, if used in elevated locations and in large enough quantity, will, without a very substantial base placed under it, slowly cause part of the structure to sag and distort the frame such that the panels will xe2x80x9chang-upxe2x80x9d and become hard to move. On the other hand, wood often is singularly bendable so that, should one of the panels be moved roughly and strike the side frame member, the frame will often distort and make further panel moving difficult. Further, on-site constructed frames take a substantial amount of design, time and materials and are thus very expensive. They cannot be easily adjusted or moved without a significant effort.
Recent trends in home, office and entertainment construction include partial and whole wall sections being made from a plurality of panels that can be moved on tracks to increase or decrease the size of the room. What is needed therefore is a jamb system that is portable, amenable to a variety of designs, and capable of numerous configurations, along the top and the sides of the frame, in order to allow assembly off the premises and simple erection on the premises to lower the cost of the entire process. Further, the jamb system should be strong enough to withstand movement of the door panels, that may each weigh up to many hundreds of pounds, and is capable of adjustment for misalignment caused by settling of the overall structure or movement caused by earth temblors, or other reasons.
This invention is a novel jamb system for framing a plurality of panels, in which at least one said panel is arranged to slide by another said panel along a set of parallel tracks mounted on a supporting surface, comprising an elongated top jamb of defined width and terminated by spaced-apart inner and outer distal ends, the jamb including one elongated top guide member for each panel, each member including an elongated rail depending therefrom for guiding a panel along its travel within the jamb, and an elongated key spacer member for insertion between each pair of top guide members for spacing the adjacent top guide members apart a distance allowing the panels to move along the rails within the jamb past each other without interference, the top guide members and the key members each formed of a plurality of side, top and bottom walls and including bent portions adapted to interlock with other bent portions in their respective walls to form a rectilinear assembly of a plurality of members for topping a plurality of doors and panels, the top guide members and the key members including slanted wall portions arranged to mate in adjacent juxtaposition with each other and accept a threaded fastener therethrough and below the outer edges of the jamb to hold the jamb in fixed, straight alignment, and an elongated side jamb of defined width and terminated by spaced-apart inner and outer distal ends, the jamb including one elongated side member for each panel, and an elongated key spacer member for insertion between each pair of elongated side members for spacing the side members apart a distance allowing the panels to move along the rails within the jamb past each other without interference, the elongated side members and the key members each formed of a plurality of side, top and bottom walls and including bent portions adapted to interlock through their respective walls to form a rectilinear assembly of a plurality of members for abutting a plurality of doors and panels, the side members and key members including slanted wall portions arranged to mate in adjacent juxtaposition with each other to accept a threaded fastener there through to hold the side jamb in fixed, straight alignment, the elongated top jamb and elongated side jamb joined together to form a complete frame about the top and sides of the panels.
The frame of this invention can be fabricated off-site to handle an unlimited number of panels, notwithstanding whether some of them are fixed in position and others set in sliding position. The individual members are preferably made of extruded aluminum that fit together in twos, threes and so on, to frame a wide variety and number of panels.
Accordingly, the main object of this invention is a relatively low-cost approach to the manufacture and installation of frames for one or more panels, usually in multiples of panels wherein they are arranged and adapted to slide past one another without interference. Other objects of this invention include a frame that is lightweight, due to its hollow extruded nature, yet highly strong and fully able to withstand insults, such as having one or more panels collide with the side frames, wind forces, and the like; a frame that is easy to assemble in doubles, triples, and the like to handle a multiplicity of panels quietly and without undue stress being placed on the frame and the surrounding structure; a frame that may be easily and quickly shimmed and otherwise adjusted to retain its correct position in the structure yet remain able to be later adjusted due to forces from the rest of the structure that operate on the interface with the frame; and a frame that can be erected by semi-skilled labor and not require the higher cost of expert labor that normally is required to construct on-site frames.
These and other objects of the invention will become more clear when one reads the following specification, taken together with the drawings that are attached hereto. The scope of protection sought by the inventors may be gleaned from a fair reading of the claims that conclude this specification.